i do! it's what i wear 90% of the time actually, where pants are concerned. my brother got me into raw denim last year, and i've since retired all my mall jeans in favor of the 2 pairs i have in rotation now. my first pair of raws is from the unbranded brand, they're a 15oz indigo selvedge fabric with a standard taper below the knee. i got them about a year ago and they've had one detergent soak so far, they're starting to fade nicely around the stress points but have retained the deep indigo color pretty nicely.

i've also got a pair of extremely black jeans from rogue territory which i got back in july, which are also a 15oz selvedge but in their skinnier cut (that's what i'm wearing in the jacket/balaclava photo on the last page) . they're double sulphur-dyed to get the super black look, so they were rather fragrant when they were brand new, which was especially fun in the summer heat those are due for their first wash/soak now that they're past the 6 month mark, but that requires scrubbing out the bathtub and i've been mega lazy.

if you're interested in high-quality denim, unbranded is a fantastic place to start. they seem a bit pricey starting around $80 retail (and they can be found on sale, too) but the quality is miles beyond the $20-50 range of target/gap type jeans, they'll more than pay for themselves compared to replacing sweatshop jeans over and over. they look a hell of a lot better too!

raw denim is just denim that has received no or minimal washing/chemical treatments prior to being sold at retail. meaning it starts out extremely stiff and uncomfortable and retains all the original dyes used in making the fabric, but breaks in over time and achieves a personalized high contrast fade. indigo-dyed fabrics in particular tend to bleed onto your skin and lighter-colored fabrics at first. most raws come sanforized, meaning they've already been shrunk to more-or-less their final size, but there are brands that specialize in unsanforized fabrics that have to be soaked and shrunk to fit prior to wear.

by comparison, most modern jeans, whether it's basic mall stuff or higher end designer pairs, are chemically treated and distressed in production to soften them up, wash away the dye and give them a more uniform look. there's less of an up-front hassle, but the tradeoff is they don't really 'personalize' well over time, and they tend to fall apart quickly.

feel free, i am not here to stop anyone from spending as much or as little as they want on clothes. lately i find myself preferring to stick to higher quality shit that won't fall apart in 3 months and that i actually enjoy wearing, so that's what i'm gonna continue to do

it's sweatshop stuff to be sure, but they do have a much better reputation for quality than other fast fashion labels like HM and zara. i only started picking stuff up from uniqlo a few months ago so nothing's really been put to the longevity test, but at the very least i didn't notice any obvious defects/flaws on the half dozen or so items i've bought so far.

if you're looking for something a little spendier, norse projects specializes in minimalist designs with little-to-no branding and is super high quality. not a brand i'd be excited to buy at full-price, but i scored a bunch of their niels basic longsleeves and tees (and a scarf and wallet!) at deep discounts back in the fall and have been very happy with all of it. no v-necks specifically, but end has a bunch of their stuff on sale right now: https://www.endclothing.com/us/sale?brand=160&p=1

only caveat with NP is most of it's meant to be hang-dried so they may require a bit more work if you normally machine-dry everything

morbid board eli wrote:what clothes were you buying that fell apart in three months

i am actually going through my closet right now because i have for some absurd reason held on to giant trashbags full of retired clothing across the last three or four places i've lived. the worst offenders for pants are american eagle, gap/banana republic, and pretty much anything from macy's (dockers, low-end calvin klein, etc.). i probably pulled a couple dozen pairs of jeans and chinos, all of which had rear pockets tearing away, crotch blowouts, shredded hems, busted zippers, torn/frayed pocketbags, basically any and every conceivable flaw that can arise with a pair of pants. and it's not like i especially abused them, these were all from college/retail days so they were mostly employed in service of heavy duty sarding

i also unearthed the original stormy shirt from when i saw incantation in november of 2000. it is not in the greatest shape but i think it can be salvaged

morbid board eli wrote:what clothes were you buying that fell apart in three months

i am actually going through my closet right now because i have for some absurd reason held on to giant trashbags full of retired clothing across the last three or four places i've lived. the worst offenders for pants are american eagle, gap/banana republic, and pretty much anything from macy's (dockers, low-end calvin klein, etc.). i probably pulled a couple dozen pairs of jeans and chinos, all of which had rear pockets tearing away, crotch blowouts, shredded hems, busted zippers, torn/frayed pocketbags, basically any and every conceivable flaw that can arise with a pair of pants. and it's not like i especially abused them, these were all from college/retail days so they were mostly employed in service of heavy duty sarding

i also unearthed the original stormy shirt from when i saw incantation in november of 2000. it is not in the greatest shape but i think it can be salvaged

so did you wear those pants every day at the time or something? i have a pair of dockers that i wear maybe once a week and those hoes are going strong after three years